


So, I found my soulmate...

by AnAngryRat



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Fluff, Gen, Parent Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 02:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15547230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnAngryRat/pseuds/AnAngryRat
Summary: Peter found his soulmate and has some questions for some of his most trusted teachers.





	So, I found my soulmate...

**Author's Note:**

> Just fluff and bad relationship advice. The ships are obvious.

Mrs. Van Dynes hair was straight and business but the way her face lit up at the question Peter posed reminded him of when she caught something on fire during one of her lectures.

"You guys are doing this for the paper, right?" She asked with a big grin.

"Duh." MJ said leaning over her desk. "They always want a fluff piece around Valentine’s Day and I suggested to interview teachers in soulbond’s instead of happy go lucky teen couples. You're our last interview."

"Who were the others?"

"Mr. Wilson," Hope smiled at his name, "Mrs. Maximoff and Mr. Vision." MJ sounded extremely disappointed that their teachers had healthy and loving relationships.

Hope's smile became a little harder. "Right. What was the question again?"

Peter knew she was asking more for his sake than hers. He needed to take control of the interview before MJ broke in and gave a small TedTalk about the futility of soulmates.

"What's your soulbond feel like?"

Mrs. Van Dyne closed her eyes as if summoning the feeling. "Like flying. Sometimes, like a hawk dropping from the air to steal a meal."

Peter wrote that down. "That sounds wonderful."

"It is."

"How long did it take your soulbond to complete?"

"Immediately." She said with a snap of her fingers. "We were one of the lucky ones whose marks were words of endearment."

MJ sighed. Peter just smiled. His wasn't. It was just a question. One he'd heard a lot recently.

"Is it easy being with your partner?" Peter asked.

Mrs. Van Dyne pushed her hair back and chuckled. "Some days are easier than others. People no matter how meant to be will rub each other the wrong way. The important part is to think of why you love them and choose to love them instead."

MJ clapped. "That was so sweet I could vomit."

Peter was finishing writing down his notes. So, he didn't see how Hope responded. They had already recorded most of the conversation he was just writing down her posture and gestures.

"Thank you, Mrs. Van Dyne. That's the last of our questions." Peter said looking up and giving her a smile. MJ held her hand out and Peter gave her the notes and stopped the recorder. She dumped his notes in her messy bag and grabbed the recorder off the table.

"I'll email you my first draft tomorrow," she said slinging the bag over her shoulder and walking out before Peter could even respond. He tsked. They both knew he was going to email Mrs. Romanoff his final draft Friday. Though, MJ was better at writing than he was. He usually copied some of her better metaphors and moved them somewhere less biting.

"With a vein of confidentiality, I have to tell you that I'm happy she's never taken my chemistry classes Peter." Hope told him sliding off her desk. Peter shrugged. MJ was MJ. He liked her just the way she was.

He stayed staring at his shoes as Mrs. Van Dyne packed up her own papers. He needed to get it out. She was less likely to tell Mr. Stark than Mr. Wilson. Mrs. Maximoff and Mr. Vision...were odd. They tended to look at him with dream like eyes and Peter wasn’t sure they could give him a straight non-riddle answer.

"Is something wrong?" She asked noticing his hesitance.

Now or never.

"What do you do when you don't think your soulmate knows that..." he lost words, the blush that had started around his neck slowly worked its way all the way up his face stifled them.

Hope stopped full. "That you're their soulmate?"

Peter nodded.

"I don't know. I guess tell them." She said smiling. "Did you find yours, Peter?"

Peters face scrunched up. "No."

She hummed and continues packing up. "I won't tell, Tony. Your secrets safe with me." She said her voice that usual soothing lull.

"I did but..."

She nodded and closed her brief case. She stood and started walking out, Peter followed her waiting.

"I find," she said locking the doors, "honesty is the best policy." Then she gave him a long hug which he tensed up through before leaving in the direction of Mr. Wilson's class room.

Peter pursed his lips. There was no way in hell he was going to tell them, it would make things awkward. He liked the way it was, he might even possibly love it.

With that he took off towards Mr. Starks room to get a ride home.

 

Peter's patience to let things continue forever lasted until lunch the next day. They smiled and the sincerity there made him want to touch and he almost never wanted to touch. Just a hug or a kiss but that was too much.

He left the table with a small apology and ran off to find Mr. Rogers. It didn't take long, he was eating in his own room looking over student art projects with interest that always shocked Peter in its ingenuity.

"Hello, Peter." He said smiling showing off a row of perfect white teeth with perfectly coifed blond hair and sky-blue eyes.

"Hey, Mr. Rogers." Peter said awkwardly taking a shaking seat across from him.

"Steve." Mr. Rogers corrected.

Peter ignored him. "I was wondering if I could get some advice."

Mr. Rogers set down his sandwich and brushed crumbs off his pink cardigan.

"Okay, shoot."

"What do you do if you like a--" Mr. Rogers stared at him with those wide trustful eyes and Peter had to grind out his lie, "friend but you don't want to change anything?"

Mr. Rogers went quiet for a while actually thinking unlike Hope who knew immediately. It was kind of comforting.

"I'd say tell them. If they don't still want to be friends afterwards then they shouldn't have been your friend in the first place."

Peter hadn't even been thinking of rejection until now. It settled there behind his breast bone and shivered in panic. Holy shit, he could be friendless if he told them. Peter forced a smile and slowly walked back out of the classroom. "Thanks. I'll see you at home." Peter will definitely overthink about that.

"Bye, Pete. Don't worry about it too much." Mr. Rogers said standing up to follow him out of the classroom. "You're a great kid."

Peter looked away. He certainly hoped so.

 

The next person he went to for guidance was the one person he knew was fantastic at running from their feelings.

"Mr. Barton!" Peter called out while everyone headed to the lockers. Ned looked confused at his immediate departure from their routine, but Peter waved a card. Ned nodded and let him go. He'd been apologizing for shooting Mr. Barton in the leg with an arrow for the better part of a year.

The haggard man stumbled to a stop in the gym and turned around. He gave Peter a lazy smile.

"I thought you'd be trying to talk to Scott-- I mean Mr. Lang, since he's, ya know, teaching your class." Mr. Barton said in greeting.

Peter held out the card. "I still feel really bad about the--"

Mr. Barton swiped the card and stuffed it into his pocket with a small flush appearing around his hearing aids. "Shhh... we don't talk about that."

Peter laughed uncertain. "Okay, Mr. Barton." He paused, and Mr. Barton raised an eyebrow waiting. "I have a question to ask you."

"If it’s about how your dick works Stark is literally three classrooms away."

Peter blushed. "No! I just want to know how to hide feelings for another person."

Mr. Barton got a wicked look in his eye. "Romantic feelings?"

"Yeah," Peter said.

"Nearly impossible," the man said leaning against the bleachers, "but I've done it before and I can help you."

Peter let out a breath of relief. "Thanks."

"First things, first, avoid them, start by having plans after school then work your way up to not seeing them during lunch or in between classes with 'plans'. Then slowly stop answering their texts maybe every third and then never. Before you know it, your total strangers and they'll never know you liked them."

Peter could not do that. It went against his DNA. He practically shook with jitters just thinking about it. They were his comfort. Being soulbonded to them felt like he was sitting next to a fire place with his feet stuffed under their thighs watching Last Jedi. It was awesome. He couldn't just leave that.

Peter grimaced. "Thanks, Mr. Barton but I think I might have to try something else."

Mr. Barton slapped him across the shoulders. "Good choice I constantly make bad decisions, just ask Barnes."

Peter chuckled and headed to the locker rooms. He was going to have to distance himself from his soulbond.

 

Mr. Strange raised an eyebrow when he walked in during his study period. The man turned back to drawing his diagram and let Peter find a seat in the empty classroom.

"Hey." He greeted sitting in the desk across from Mr. Strange's computer chair.

"What brings you here, Peter?" Mr. Strange asked when he was done drawing the cat muscles on the white board.

"I found my soulmate and I don't understand what's chemically happening."

Mr. Strange slipped on the way to the desk and dropped several dry erase markers across the floor.

"What?" He demanded then followed with. "Have you told Tony yet?"

"No. I just-" Peter gestured "want to understand what's going on. Puberty is weird enough as it is."

Mr. Strange straightened. "Of course. It all starts with the hippocampus..."

Mr. Strange's lecture lasted the entire hour and fried Peter’s already overheated brain. By the end he might have seriously been considering Barton's tactics over this. It was a chemical construct, but it was also so unscientific that Mr. Strange would occasionally go into a tirade about how magic is bullshit then describe the different types of primates that must have stemmed the soulmate insignias. Peter was relieved when he heard the bell.

"Thanks, Mr. Strange."

Mr. Strange waved him away. "Bye, Peter. Hoped that helped a bit."

It didn't not even a little, but Peter smiled for him anyway. "It did."

 

Peter was slumped in his chair next to Mr. Stark. Ned was at chess club and he had a full hour to waste for him to get back. Sparks flew from Mr. Stark’s most recent side project as he welded it some more whistling Led Zepplin. The noise stopped, and Peter could finally hear the actual song playing from his speakers.

"Is there anything you wanted to tell me, Peter?"

Peter tapped his foot before letting out an aggrieved sigh. "Who told?"

"Honest answer?" Mr. Stark asked setting down his work to turn and face Peter.

"Yeah."

"Everyone."

"Mrs. Van Dyne is a dirty liar."

"She dated Scott for two years, what did you expect?"

"She told me MJ was mean and I trusted her."

"MJ is a bitter little wench and I love her for it." Mr. Stark intoned while Peter continued to fume.

"Mr. Rogers--"

"Steve," Mr. Stark corrected.

"I knew would tell you," Peter continued over him. "But I trusted Mrs. Van Dyne."

Mr. Stark hummed. "That sucks, junior."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Well, now you know why I'm here, tell me what to do."

"I'd rather hear it from the source," Mr. Stark said opening up his Starkphone and looking over one of his designs. "Don't get me wrong, Barton's version of events was great, but I kind of care about the kid at the end of it."

It was always a wash of joy when Mr. Stark said things like that. It didn't stop Peter from letting out a deep beleaguered sigh anyway. "I soulbonded and I don't know what to do. I love how things are but...I want to touch like we haven't before like kiss and stuff and I'd have to change things but what if they reject me?"

"You're really not going to tell me who it is?" Mr. Stark asked.

"Ned." Peter admitted.

Mr. Stark booped his nose. "I knew that I just wanted to hear it out loud."

"But I don't even know it it's requited!"

"Look," Mr. Stark said leaning down into Peters space and making eye contact. "I've never had an unrequited bond. Mine, like most, happened instantaneously. But I know someone who has an open one and you're not going to like who it is."

Peter didn't care at this point. "Just tell me. Maybe they'll give me good advice."

"They will. Just don't tell them I sent you they hate my guts."

"No one hates you, Mr. Stark," Peter groaned.

"Tony," he corrected.

“Dad,” Peter corrected over him.

They shared a look.

"Please tell me, I'm stressed enough as is." Peter grumbled.

"Mr. Barnes."

Peter snorted. "Mr. Barnes doesn't hate you. You guys have lunch every Friday."

"That's so we can shit on Steve and occasionally our other colleagues. Other than that, he hates me."

"Why Mr. Rogers?"

"His name is Steve and he's too good. I think he died in 2003 and the actual Mr. Rogers inhabited his body."

Peter tilted his head working this over. "He likes to whistle the tune before class." Peter also heard "I love you just the way you are," sometimes before going to sleep. It seemed more and more likely Fred Rogers in haunting Mr. Rogers’ corpse.

"I need to remember this for tomorrow." Mr. Stark said typing on his phone. "He's fucking with the students now. Must be a sign of advancement."

Peter laughed. "Actually, the one Mr. Barnes hates is me." Peter muttered. Mr. Barnes was the viciously sarcastic US History teacher and tended to be the hardest class to take. He might also be one of Peters favorite teachers after Mr. Banner. (Tony and Mr. Rogers didn't count since they all lived together.)

"Are you kidding? You're in his top three and a half people?" Tony said leaning back. He was looking at Peter with that soft look again. Peter couldn't help but smile into it.

"Three and a half?"

"Yeah Steve, Barton's dog, you, Barton."

“In that order?”

Tony tilted his hand side to side. “Steve and Barton take turns on who’s the top of the list.”

"Makes sense."

Tony hummed. Then made shooing motions with his hands.

"Go talk to him."

Peter swallowed. "Alright."

"I'll pick you up from Ned’s house." Tony continued.

"Okay."

"We're having dumplings tonight so ask if he wants to join." He offered knowing Mr. Rogers' dumplings were Ned's favorite thing in the entire world.

"He'll definitely be there," Peter said opening the door to the metal work shop.

"Good luck."

"Thanks, Tony."

 

Peter walked into the theater staggered class room and waved to Mr. Barnes who didn't look up from grading papers. That was a lot of red ink.

"Hey," Peter said scratching his neck.

"What do you want?" Mr. Barnes snapped.

"Can you help me with my soulmate?" Peter asked.

The pen snapped in Mr. Barnes fingers. "There are better teachers for that."

"My situation is a little more complicated." Peter said.

"How so?"

"I think it's just one way." Peter said.

"Oh." Mr. Barnes looked down his hair covering his face. He sounded more human than he usually did in that one syllable.

"I don't know where to go from here."

Mr. Barnes leaned back in his chair. "Easy. Start with a date. If you're not comfortable out right asking for it just offer to go out and pay for everything or share an ice cream. Something intimate. After that you're halfway to a romantic relationship and it'll come. Be patient."

Oh. It sounded so simple. Peter grinned wide. Mr. Barnes lips twitched in his version of a smile.

"Thank you so much," he said trying to show his gratitude.

"Not a problem kid. Now get the fuck out of here."

"Sure thing, Mr. Barnes."

 

Peter met up with Ned outside the chess club meeting room rubbing his soulmark. It sat across his hip and said the words Ned had asked him nearly every weekday for almost three years, "Wanna hang out after?"

Peter always said yes. Other chess club members walked out, and Peter put down his shirt quickly. Soulmarks were to remain secret until they found that person. It was why Mr. Barton still wore a long sleeve over his arm and Mr. Loki always had a scarf.

"Hey, Peter!" Ned said smiling when he saw him.

"Hi, umm..." Peter coughed.

"Yes?" Ned prompted.

"Would you like to go," Peter said slowly feeling the blush work its way up his head, "to the mall with me?"

Ned laughed. "Like a date?"

"Yeah," Peter squeaked, his voice breaking horribly.

Ned's eyes went really wide. "Did you finally soulbond?"

"What?" Peter barked. "We--pshh--yes!"

"I've been waiting for months." Ned told him.

"O-o-oh?"

Ned looked around before taking off his watch. "I'd love to!" was written across his wrist in Peters own hand writing.

"Whoa!" Peter said staring at it. Ned reclipped the watch and held out his hand.

"Right?"

“That’s great,” Peter said.

“I knew you’d get there eventually,” Ned stuck out his head. “Just had to be patient. Ready to go?”

"Yes." Peter said taking his hand and enjoying to warmth that came with it.


End file.
